Adaptive time-frequency parametrization of epileptic spikes

Adaptive time-frequency approximations of signals have proven to be a valuable tool in electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis and research, where it is believed that oscillatory phenomena play a crucial role in the brain's information processing. This paper extends this paradigm to the nonoscillating structures such as the epileptic EEG spikes, and presents the advantages of their parametrization in general terms such as amplitude and half-width. A simple detector of epileptic spikes in the space of these parameters, tested on a limited data set, gives very promising results. It also provides a direct distinction between randomly occurring spikes or spike/wave complexes and rhythmic discharges.